Sliding Sensex closes below 9K

Bears are refusing to give up their domination, bringing share valuations further down. Equity prices continued their southward journey for the fifth consecutive trading session on the back of worsening anxiety and constant fall in the international markets.

Bears are refusing to give up their domination, bringing share valuations further down. Equity prices continued their southward journey for the fifth consecutive trading session on Tuesday on the back of worsening anxiety and constant fall in the international markets. With other global markets also losing ground, the Sensex closed below the 9,000 level.

Dealers said even the finance minister8217;s statement failed to boost the market sentiment. The finance minister had earlier said that the government will take steps to stimulate the domestic economy to compensate for the ill-effects of the world economic turmoil.

The 30-share Sensex of Bombay Stock Exchange shed 353.81 points, or 3.81 per cent, and ended at 8,937.20 points. With this, the Sensex has fallen 1,599 points, or 15.17 per cent, in the last five trading sessions. Real estate companies suffered the most with the realty index falling 21.5 per cent in five sessions.

The broader S038;P CNX Nifty of National Stock Exchange NSE lost 116.40 points, or 4.16 per cent, to close at 2,683.15 points.

Hitesh Agrawal, head of research at Angel Broking, said, 8220;We are witnessing huge instability which will remain for the next couple of days. Though the condition on the domestic front is improving, domestic markets are taking cues from international markets. So we assume that unless the global condition improves, Indian markets will remain rangebound.8221;

An analyst from the leading broking house said, 8220;There is constant selling pressure from the foreign institutional investors FII along with retail investors. This has impacted the markets badly. There8217;s some more downside left to the market as we have still not reached the bottom.8221;

All of the BSE sectoral indices ended the day on a negative terrain with IT and power being the worst performers of the day. Dealers say that the Reserve Bank of India RBI might take more measures to enhance the liquidity condition in the country.

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India8217;s economy is slowing down after growing at an annual rate of 9 per cent or more in the past three years. The economic growth slumped to 7.9 per cent in the April-June 2008 quarter from 9.2 per cent in the same period last year. The Reserve Bank of India has lowered India8217;s growth forecast to 7.5 per cent to 8 per cent for the current financial year. Some global investment banks expect an even lower rate of growth.

Tokyo8217;s Nikkei 225 stock average fell 2.3 per cent, a day after confirmation Japan, the world8217;s second largest economy, had slipped into a recession. Hong Kong8217;s Hang Seng Index shed 4.5 per cent. Shanghai Composite index slid 6.3 per cent after advancing four straight days. Australia8217;s main index declined 3.6 per cent and South Korea8217;s Kospi fell 3.9 per cent. The FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was down 1.5 per cent, while Germany8217;s DAX was down 1.4 per cent. The CAC-40 in France was down 1.5 per cent.